HTC and the Bootloader

I have always loved HTC because in so many ways they have made their devices not only good-looking but also user community friendly. Their history with this has been long before they were a well-recognized consumer brand. XDA-Developers is one of the most recognized communities for this kind of activity. HTC contemplated about whether or not to lock up the bootloader. After concerns from the community, HTC opted to not forge ahead. This is another testament of HTC’s commitment to the community.

It never really occured to me as to why they would contemplate such a thing especially since of their standing in the user community and it’s one of the reasons why their devices is so popular. As we are exploring other devices here other than the BlackBerry, @lukereeves pointed out the security risks with Android devices that have root access. The issue is to do this, you’d have to open access to the bootloader. Once the Bootloader is opened, regardless of what security you have on the ROM, you’ve enabled a way to bypass it.

I’m really curious about how HTC would balance between the consumer community and the business community which is traditionally lucrative. The other thing to consider is that the consumer space is where most of the bleeding edge technology is now unlike 15 years ago. The consumer is more than likely to switch more often. However, not many people would like to carry two devices so whatever corporate provides tend to be an individual’s primary device. It would be interesting to see what HTC will do. Perhaps start a separate brand to focus on the enterprise space?